We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful LeeAnne Bauer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with LeeAnne below.

LeeAnne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

First and foremost, creating and participating in projects that have profound meaning and themes are truly what drives me as an artist. I’ve spent the better part of this year focusing on two projects that portray strong female lead characters and their emotional journey in what would typically be a male-dominated environment.

Storytelling and utilizing pieces of my own life experience to connect with the audience, is ultimately what drives my passion for acting and creating stories.

This year, I’ve been involved in producing, writing, and acting in two short films that portray and touch on the female experience in the crime and military genres, and the emotional catharsis that comes with it. These characters are emotionally messy, and experience significant emotional and physical trauma on their journey. I wanted to collaborate and create stories that focus not just on overcoming adversity, but moreso on the internal battle that comes with extreme circumstances.

Collaborating on these two projects has been a unique experience. I am so grateful to have worked with a handful of independent creatives to help bring these stories to life. In particular, working with Dir. Raul Urreola of Bullet Catch Films on the crime short film, titled ‘TRAFIK,’ has provided me an opportunity as an actor and creator for an immense amount of growth and development. His artistic language and collaboration has been tremendously successful in bringing the storyline and character of an undercover FBI agent involved in drug and human trafficking to life.

As I look toward the end of this year, I am equally as excited to be working with creatives across Southern California on my next project – a military genre short film with historical relevancy in regard to women in ground combat, titled ‘The Risk Rule’. This film is extremely special to me, as I have also helped to co-write it with themes and content based loosely on my own personal experiences. Pulling together a team of creatives from both LA and San Diego (Dir. George Jac, Cinematographer David M Parks, and San Diego production company MMXX Films), and with a significant veteran presence on our cast and crew, I look forward to bringing another strong female-lead storyline to life.

LeeAnne, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve been drawn to performing since I was a little girl. Growing up in the suburbs of Buffalo, NY and raised by a single father, our connection was always rooted in music and the arts. We had singing battles in the car and worked together on school projects for drawing and art class. As an adult, I realize how critical his encouragement has been for me on my path to performing.

Music has always been my first love, and years after those car battles with my dad, I made a series of moves to Los Angeles and Nashville, always in pursuit of furthering my music career and fulfilling a need that felt innate to who I was as an individual. I had the opportunity to work with some exceptionally talented and seasoned music professionals and released several singles independently while performing live for several years.

When the pandemic hit and music venues closed down, my need for performance remained, and I took the first steps to transform and expand my artistic focus into acting. The past few years in the acting industry have been such a wild ride and one I would never take back.

As an actress, I find myself drawn to roles and character types with an edge to them. With the ability to draw from my life experiences and upbringing, I lean into characters of traumatic experiences and am really proud of those moments when I get a chance to play a layered character of extreme circumstance. Within the context of everyday life, I often try to suppress past traumas and experiences, so I truly love when I get the chance to live through those moments and connect with the audience in a really raw and vulnerable way.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My mission has always been to offer an impact to the audience, to affect them. I remember so many instances as a kid of musicians, actors, movies, TV series that left me walking away feeling a little less alone in my life experience and journey. The characters and lyrics that would give me inspiration and resolve that the circumstances and the challenges I faced as a teen, adolescent, collegiate, adult – they were all relevant and resonated with so many others. A source of connection and mutual understanding. I felt like these characters and songs, they knew exactly what I was going through, and offered a sort of kinship that way. I hope through my performances to offer that experience to others.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Hard work does not guarantee success, and success and happiness are not one and the same. I think as children we are taught that hard work through education, and within the workforce as a professional will guarantee a certain amount of success and happiness – that financial stability would allow for happiness on its own. As I’ve grown and pivoted careers, tried new things both professionally and personally, and I’ve found that formula didn’t land where I thought it would. Performance and the arts have always found their way back into my life, because they give me happiness that is independent of success. As I’ve stepped more fully into my creative space over the last several years, I’ve had to unlearn some of the concepts of traditional careers, and instead find that success and happiness isn’t in the end result, but rather in getting to the results, the journey. It’s been a small amount of wisdom that I had heard before, but not really thought about in the context of my life experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.leeannebauer.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/leeanne_bauer

Image Credits
TJ Hastings Michael Roud Raul Urreola